Aljamain sterling retained his bantamweight title with a fierce display of ground and pound after T.J. Dillashaw sustained a dislocated shoulder during the UFC 280 comain event.
The injury was caused by Sterling placing Dillashaw on his stomach. Dillashaw, who is a two-time 135-pound champion, immediately began favoring his right arm. Referee Marc Goddard allowed the action to continue but Sterling was not stopping until he put Dillashaw away.
The end mercifully came at 3:44 in round 1 after Goddard could not allow Dillashaw to suffer any more punishment from Sterling. Dillashaw had told Goddard that Sterling would probably inflict more damage to his shoulder after suffering a similar injury during training camp. This led to Dillashaw’s defeat on Saturday.
“The guys actually pointed it out to me. It was something [he suffered the injury],” Sterling had said afterward that I didn’t know. Sterling said that he made sure to keep the pressure up and do what was necessary. Anaconda, human backpack, I take you down, it’s a wrap, wrap.
” I always talk to my enemies, and like to be a leader. It was mine night. What’s up.”
As soon as the fight began, Sterling rushed forward quickly and pulled off a takedown that brought Dillashaw to the ground. That’s when Dillashaw grabbed his arm and it appeared that he might tap out yet he continued scrambling to try and break free from Sterling’s grasp.
Before long, Sterling was looking for the back-naked choke submission. Sterling continued to pound away on Dillashaw, looking for the end.
The fight eventually got back to the feet and it was clear that Dillashaw’s shoulder was completely compromised. Between rounds, Dillashaw’s coaches were able to get the shoulder back in place and for better or worse, he was allowed to continue.
Again, Sterling tried to get the takedown. This time Dillashaw was unable to stand up and he began eating punches one after another with no way out. Dillashaw did his best to stay out of trouble but eventually Sterling’s ground-and-pound was just too much, which led to Goddard stopping the fight.
“It popped out right way,” Dillashaw said about his shoulder injury. I completely tore my shoulder out at the end of April. It was probably a result of a number of 20 injuries sustained during training camp. I told the ref in the back my shoulder would most likely pop out.
“Hats off to Aljamain for doing what he does. Sorry for the excess weight. Although I accepted a job, I didn’t want to wait for another year to get a chance .”
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While the injury was unfortunate, Sterling performed exactly the right thing to keep his title and to leave Abu Dhabi as champion. Following the win, Sterling mentioned names like Henry Cejudo, Sean O’Malley, Marlon “Chito” Vera and Cory Sandhagen as potential opponents as he looks to continue his reign over the bantamweight division moving into 2023.
